Free Will
by Keifren1ooo
Summary: All the Pikmin follow the leader, respect him, fight for him, and protect him. Everyone... except one red Pikmin, who disbands from the group and questions the "Why's?" of the existence of the Pikmin. Inspired by a beta element in the original Pikmin game, where Pikmin were originally going to have free will. Oneshot.


**Note: **Just a little idea I had when I found out that, in the beta version of Pikmin 1, the Pikmin were originally going to have free will. Some would obey you like normal, but others can ignore you. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

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I'm... I... I don't really know who I am. The outcast? The wanderer? It doesn't matter. I chose to be like this.

All I really know, is what I don't know. Everything is strange and unusual. A surreal reality that shouldn't really be. For why is it that this is the life of my species and I? To carry, fight, multiply, only to be eaten in the end?

… Am I really supposed to exist? Everyone tells me that this "leader" in red should be followed and trusted... but is that really so? Why must I have to commit myself to this person? His ringer annoys me, but it somehow catches the heart of everyone else, and they go running up to him as if he's the savior of the world.

Why?

Why!?

It's really all I think about. The why's of the world, and the answers I don't get.

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It was only this morning when I was born. I was enjoying my first few seconds developing as a seed, only to have myself plucked before my full nourishment was complete, leaving nothing but an ugly leaf on my head.

The man who had disrupted my development blew into something, and produced a loud, irritating sound that ringed into my head. I'm not sure how I was able to hear that sound though. I have no ears. Just a nose. Either way, the man kept blowing his ringer at me, but I didn't know what he wanted. I just stood there and stared at him. Behind him was a mass of other likes me, in different colors. They looked so loyal to this man, and I didn't know why. What was so special about him?

Then this man did something I couldn't even begin to comprehend what cruel, inhumane motive he had in doing this. He came up to, and picked me up by my stem! As if that wasn't bad enough, not only did he pick me up, but he actually launched me at the nearest flower! I slammed into the core of the flower, and fell down.

_Why did he do that? What cruel thing would just do that? _I thought. I looked up, and saw that the others were still following this man loyally. If this man treated them so harshly, why were they still following him as if he was a God? I went up to someone like me at the back of the group. This one was yellow. I asked him,

"Why are you all following him? He threw me!"

"The leader?" the yellow one said. "He helps us. He throws us onto flowers so we can bring back their core to reproduce. He helps us to kill monsters that we previously thought were impossible to kill."

"But do you think we should really trust him?" I asked. It was a simple question, really, but the yellow one stared at me in a horrified shock. He looked at me as if I was some kind of murderer.

"Of course we can trust him!" the yellow one replied with a matter-of-fact tone. "He helped us with everything!" I thought about this for a while. _Can_ he really be trusted? I decided to take the yellow one's word.

"Okay. I'll follow you guys then." I replied.

As I was following, only then did I really get a good perspective of my surroundings. We were in a large forest. Right now, we were in a place with a large, metal ship (I assumed that's where the leader slept) and three other large ships, each one a different color. One was red, one was yellow, and one was blue, the same colors as each of our species. I recognized them as the places where we lived, but I didn't know what they were called. I asked the yellow one again,

"What are the large colored things called? The ones where we live in?"

"The leader calls them Onions," the yellow one replied, "and he also calls our species, Pikmin." _Pikmin?_ It was a peculiar name, but I decided to use it, because I couldn't think of anything better.

We went through an opening to the south of the landing site. There was a small, red creature that blocked our way. It had white spots on its body. The leader took one of the Pikmin, and threw it on top of the creature. The Pikmin landed on top of the creature, and it quickly died. The leader then had three of the Pikmin carry the corpse back to the landing site.

We came across another of the small, red creature. The leader made to pick me up, but I dodged out of the way. I wasn't just going to let him _throw_ me onto that creature. The leader looked at me peculiarly, then picked up another Pikmin and threw him onto the red creature. It too died on impact, and the leader had three of us carry that back as well.

Eventually, after a bit more walking, we came across a very large red creature. It was sleeping, but it was also blocking our way.

_We're not fighting this thing, are we? _I thought, _Surely, the leader needs to have at least _some _sense in that. _Apparently not. All the other Pikmin looked ready to fight, and the leader looked like he was ready to get at 'em too. _Don't tell me..._

The leader picked up a Pikmin... and threw it right at the large creature. He started doing this to even more Pikmin too, as one by one, more and more Pikmin were thrown onto the beast.

I wasn't paying attention, I was too caught up with what was happening, to realize that the thing I had feared happened. He picked me up too, and threw me right at creature.

I was sure I was going to die right then and there. But instinct caught me first, and I latched onto the creature, and began beating it in. The other Pikmin were doing this too. My whole view on the situation changed. We were going to win! This creature was going to die, and we would move on!

I was so caught up with my daydreams, that I didn't realize one, crucial thing. The creature woke up as we beat it to death, and shook all of us off. I had snapped out of my vision then, and to my horror, I saw the large creature heading for me a group of other Pikmin near me. It got close, and opened it's large, daunting maw. I couldn't die here, not now! I quickly regained my senses, and rolled out of the way just as the its mouth came down. I wasn't fast enough to escape fully, though, and one large tooth of the monster grabbed onto the side of my stomach. The mouth closed and the creature reeled his head up.

"AAAAAGGGHH!" It was so _painful_. Right after the creature reeled his head up, the tooth that had grabbed onto the side of my stomach ripped off a section of my stomach. That section began to bleed tremendously. The pain was so _excruciating_ that it was almost indescribable. The creature, realizing that I had cheated out of its kill, got ready to attack me a second time.

A rush of adrenaline hit me all of a sudden. Clutching my stomach, I got up, despite the amount of pain that it took, and I ran as fast as I could away from that creature. I ran away from it all. Once, I looked back and saw that the leader was trying to call back the Pikmin to throw them once again at the large creature. It appalled me, though, to see how the Pikmin futilely attacked the large, red beast, only to be shaken off and eaten in the gaping mouth of the creature. I saw the blood coming off, the beast chewing on his meals, the souls rising into the air...

It was too much to bear. I kept running and running and running away. I heard the leader blowing his whistle at me, but I didn't dare to return. I don't where I was running, as long as it was away from that terrible scene. I don't know how long I was running, as long as it was as far away from the scene. The whole time, I kept thinking, _It's his fault. The leader was stupid. We shouldn't have fought that monster..._

After a while, I stopped running. I didn't know where I was, but it felt safe. I sat down, and all the pain from my stomach came back to me. It was still gushing the red liquid terribly. I tried to live with the pain, but it only felt as if it was getting worse and worse. The pain began to blur my vision, and the throbbing from my heart made me dizzy.

I decided to try at least to ease the pain a bit. I found a large leaf that I could use as a bandage, and I wrapped it around my stomach. The leaf was soon soaked in the blood, so I threw that leaf away, and gathered a few more large leaves. I bundled them together, and wrapped the layered bandage around my stomach. This time, the extra layers of the leaves stopped the bleeding a bit. Once I had that settled, I sat down again, slowly this time, and pondered the meaning of my existence, and the existence of the Pikmin species as a whole.

I thought of the "Why's" in everything, but I didn't get any answers. I did come to the conclusion, though, that the leader couldn't be trusted. His incompetence is what was getting us killed by that large monster. I was sure of it.

After a few hours of thought, I couldn't think of a solution that could fully explain the purpose of the existence of our species. Surely, we should be more than just little creatures willing to do the bidding of a higher-up... right? I also realized that I had never found out why that man was here in the first place. What did he need that required our assistance? Once again, more questions no answers. I sighed out loud, realizing that I had achieved nothing since being plucked this morning.

It was getting dark. The large, bright ball of fire in the sky was beginning to disappear from the sky, slowly disappearing off into the horizon. Instinct told me that it would be nighttime when the ball of fire disappears, and then it would be dark.

And that would mean more monsters would come out. My instinct told me to return back to the landing site and crawl into the red Onion, where I would be safe and sound from the nocturnal monsters of the night...

But something held me back. I couldn't quite determine exactly _what_ was holding me back though. It just felt like some kind of force telling me not to go, that it would be better off if I stayed where I was.

And so I did stay. In an hour, the ball of fire was almost completely gone. Off in the distance, I heard the leader ringing his ringer, its echoes reaching to me. _Probably gathering up all the Pikmin. _I thought. For some strange reason, I found this amusing. Maybe it was because that I felt as if I had chosen the better option, to stay behind. I still didn't know why I thought that was the better option though.

I sat down, and watched the beautiful colors that the ball of fire made as it disappeared out of the horizon. The brilliant shades of orange, yellow, and red, painted itself across the blue canvas of the sky. The bits of white from the piles of fluff in the sky dotted the sky too. It began to grow darker and darker, until the entire sky was almost nearing its midnight-like dusk.

Off in the distance, I began to hear some noises. It sounded like a series of *_POPS* and *BANGS!* _I looked in the direction of noises. Off, far in the distance, I saw the leader's ship and the three Onions launch into the sky, escaping what would be the beasts awakening for tonight.

I began to hear the creatures of the night awaken, ready to search for their next feast. A part of me felt regretful for not coming along. If I had, I would have been safe, and I would have nothing to worry about except for serving the leader in his adventure.

And yet, that same feeling that held me back before came back to me. I now knew why I had this feeling, and why it made feel... _good_ to be left behind. It was because I had done it on my own accord. I didn't do it because the leader wanted me to, it was because _I _wanted to.

As I heard even more nocturnal creatures begin to awaken, I felt at peace with myself. If I happen to be discovered by a nocturnal creature, and it wants to eat me, then I'll try to survive. But if I happen to find myself cornered, with no other option but death, I'll accept the fate. Because I chose this lifestyle. Me, not the leader.

By my own will.

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**Disclaimer**: As much as I want to, I don't own Pikmin.

I would greatly appreciate reviews and criticism! Thank you!


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